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Rug hooking is a traditional American art that has recently seen a resurgence. Hand hooked rugs sell in department stores and specialty shops with large price tags. But their current value belies their humble beginnings.
Originally hooked rugs were made of clothing scraps cut into strips and pulled through burlap sacking in which they had purchased potatoes or other foodstuffs. Creative housewives would hook the fabric into colorful patterns or pictures of the things in their daily lives. Animals and flowers were popular decorative themes. The resulting rugs were used to warm floors in the winter time and to add some color to the rooms. Sometimes you can find antique hooked rugs with price tags of several hundred dollars.
The process of rug hooking is simple enough to learn in an evening, but the variations in fabric, technique and design keep many a craftsperson captivated! Begin with simple tools, such as those our ancestors may have used. If you want to get more involved in the craft, you can upgrade to specialized tools.
Basic tools you need are:
1. A simple drawing to use as a pattern. This can be as simple as a triangle on a blank field, or more complex like a wreath of flowers.
2. 2) Scraps of fabric in colors to suit your pattern. Woolen fabric works beautifully, but any fabric that does not fray heavily can be used.
3. A hook. You can purchase a special rug hook for as little as $5 or as much as $60. Do not get the kind with the little flap intended for latch hooking. If that is all you can find, tape the flap down out of your way. A medium-large crochet hook will work as a first hook.
4. A rectangle of burlap. Purchase this from your fabric store. You can use the natural straw colored fiber, or a color that blends with your pattern.
5. Scissors
6. Wooden canvas stretcher bars such as is used for artists' canvas, or a simple picture frame that you don't mind putting staples into.
7. Permanent marker
8. Masking tape.
9. Yarn or heavy thread to match fabric scraps.
10. Large darning needle.
11. Straight pins.
How to hook your rug:
1) Cut the burlap to a size 6" or more larger than the frame you will be using. The opening of the frame will determine the size of your finished rug.
2) Press masking tape along the edges of the burlap to prevent fraying as you work.
3) Stretch the burlap onto the stretcher. Staple the center of each stretcher bar on each side first, then staple 2" away from the original staples, gradually going outward while stretching the burlap taut until it is completely secured on the stretcher. Leave four to six inches overflow uncut to use later as an edge binding.
4) Draw the pattern out on the burlap using a permanent marker.
5) Select a shape near the center of the burlap that you plan to fill in with one color. (Multicolored fabrics are fine, because the ultimate outcome will give a rich appearance, although it may look little like the uncut fabric.)
6) Cut the fabric you will use for this section into strips that are from ½" to 1" wide and 12" to 18" long. For thicker fabrics like wool, cut the narrower width. For thin fabrics, cut wider strips. Experience will show you how wide the strips should be. Cut with the grain for less fraying. For beginners, I recommend not cutting all of the fabric at once, but rather cutting several strips at a time until you determine if the width you've cut works well. (If you decide to get serious about rug hooking, special cutters are available which make this task much easier.)
7) Balance one edge of the frame on a table and the opposite edge in your lap as you sit in a chair.
8) Hold the hook in your right hand with the hook facing up. (Reverse directions if you are left handed.)
9) Take one strip of fabric in your left hand. Make a loop at the end with about four inches of the fabric.
10) Push the back of the hook through a hole in the burlap and catch the loop of fabric with the hook.
11) Pull the fabric up through the hole with the hook until a "pile" as high as the fabric is wide emerges on the top side. As you gain experience you can experiment with different depths of pile.
12) Drop that loop from your hook.
13) Move your left finger along the long end of the fabric strip beneath the burlap, and reach through the next hole with your hook in your right hand, grab the fabric and pull another ½" high loop through the top of the fabric. Be careful not to let the first loop pop back out. Your left hand will become adept at checking the fabric in the back to make sure it is secure. Strive to make the pile loops as even as possible.
14) Continue in this fashion until the strip of fabric runs out, then start in the same way with the next strip.
15) You can go back and forth across each section or you can go around and around, or any pattern that moves you. The frame will have to be moved and adjusted as you work the burlap.
16) When the pattern is completely filled in all the way out to the edges, carefully remove the burlap from the frame.
17) Remove the masking tape.
18) Turn the edges of the burlap under 1" and press.
19) Turn edges of burlap under all the way up to the edge of the design and pin into place, making neat "hospital corners".
20) Hem securely using the large darning needle and yarn or fabric scrap strips.
Now your finished rug is ready to hang or put on the floor!
Do not put hooked rugs in the washing machine! All your hard work will be lost! Wash in a bathtub of cool water, using mild detergent. Pat and press the dirt out, but do not wring. Remove from the tub and lay flat to dry.
Some people paint the back with latex rubber which dries and makes the rug able to withstand harsher treatment. Others believe this will damage the fibers. The rugs can be completely backed with another piece of fabric for increased durability.
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